You forgot about the Marconi Velvetone records that were marketed by American Columbia in 1907. They came in both 10 and 12 inch sizes - 12 inch being very rare today. Like the records you demonstrated, they had a celluloid surface bonded to a paper core and had to be played with special gold plated needles. What you must never - NEVER - do is play these laminated records on acoustical phonographs with steel needles which bear down on the record grooves with a weight of 50,000 pounds per square inch and gouge the hell out of record grooves.
And remeber, for proper record care, be sure to put your hands all over the playing surface of the recod and be sure to play it only on a prehistoric phonograph with a nail-like needle to ream the grooves out.
Not necessarily, later soundboxes were lighter and had aluminium diaphragms. Notice how the head is raked at about 45 degrees to the record surface, this helps, as opposed to the more usual 60 degrees. You could buy special needles (trailer needles) that were bent to achieve the same effect. Filmophones are practically unplayable on anything but a windup!
Never never ever ever play them on a gramophone with standard needle. There were angled needles. But there's a very good reason for the use of shellac plastic, because this could stand the pressure the best. Changing to vinyl was possible, when they could reduce the weight to less than 10 grams. Therefore the early try in 1931 to establish long playing records couldn't work. The first light weighted pick up with sapphire stylus came in the 2nd half of the 1930's and was the less popular option, most people used steel needles.
I would love to hear what a mint unplayed copy of one of those records would sound like on a modern system, because I have some PyeNixa "vinyl" 78s from 1960, which sound amazing, but sadly do have wear from being played with a heavy playback arm.
I really wonder how this flexible material would withstand the heavy load of the steel needle. I thought these flexi 78s and vdisk were made for reproduction by electric pickups with sapphire needles
That was fun to watch. Back in the day, by which I mean the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, it was common to find very thin flexible records, giveaways, in advertising and in music publications. I still have a few of them, awful of course, but interesting. The very thin flexible records you are demonstrating were (I suppose) always one-sided, until vinyl happened. Then records were unbreakable, and had two sides. I really enjoyed the music you played. Thanks to you, and to the algorithms of RU-vid who suggested it.
Those appeared in Nat. Geographic magazine. There were recordings from the space program. Such records could contain infomercials, such as for Time Life,s Swing Era.
Brilliant! Informative and amusing. Just checked out Olive Groves, what a pretty lady she was. No mention of a different name she was born with!?! Excellent filming and editing by George, made for a very enjoyable watch.
Nice overview of British flexis, like the old Alba too. The little clip for holding down Duriums is often found lurking in the bottom of the sleeve, it's an oval piece of card of the same redbrick colour as the back of the record and quite thick. It grips on the spindle a bit like a speednut.
Interesting video. Later in the late 48 and into the early 50's many major labels issued Radio Station 78 rpm copies (D.J. copies) in vinyl, a new material pioneered by RCA in their introduction of the 45 rpm record. Known as the speed wars each speed (33-1/3 and 45rpm) coexisted along with the 78 rpm. What I found interesting are the Beatle records from 1964 / 1965 still being pressed at the 78 rpm speed in countries like India, etc. I don't know if they were shellac or vinyl. I have a 1917 or 1918 ALBA gramophone with cabinet loaded horn. It sounds wonderful.
You know, this might very well be interesting. But if you're going to do videos on You Tube or anywhere else, you need a microphone that is NOT stationary on the camera. It is VERY distracting to hear the camera operator BREATHING in and out with a stuffy nose. Now I realize this subject is about old tech. I personally have a small collection of 78's. But your camera operators nose is too close to the mic. Use a lavalier mic for the narrator/host and get another mic for the audio source (phonograph). A small investment would create a giant gain in quality.
The appearance of them being a bit tattered and hazed over makes any one think at first glance that they are toast but they do sound right good . Can you use any modern method with record cleaning fluid on them or are they just too delicate for that ?..
I have a few 78rpm records myself of which only 7 are flexi discs and 3 are postcards. I love collecting unusual records and among the ones mentioned above I have a few that appear to be the home recorded type and only an odd few are not 78rpm. I can provide photos if required
With shellac records and steel needles the needle, during play, as it wears, develops a chisel edge. Even though shellac is harder than steel, the chisel edge will begin to damage the record grooves after a while. Acoustic gramophones can have quite heavy tracking weights which exacerbates the situation. Damage of this type is most evident in the distortion of louder sounds and near the center of the disc where tracking errors (unwanted lateral forces) tend to be greatest. The problem of worn needles and tracking weights / errors persists to this very day. Records were never intended to last long in the commercial sense. The machine in this video is definitely above average, with a lightweight reproducer. I wouldn’t worry about the flexible discs.
records early on had grit that wore the needle down instead of the other way around. But that was for only ONE play of a record. any more with the same needle you risk damaging the record.
The grit was in the berliner discs sure but my experience even as far back as single sided Victors tells me this idea did not persist. Victors have quiet surfaces unless worn out. Grit makes nasty noise.
